INFO [AION TELEOS]
You will almost never see Hayame smile. Her expression is a prime example of Resting Bitch Face, and she almost always looks angry, offended, or cold, contemplative at best. She holds herself physically apart from others and doesn't even seem to directly touch people she interacts with somehow (unless it's in anger and she's laying hands). Though her human-like parts are more trained, her equine parts can sometimes be used to read her actual mood, especially her tail.
Update: Hayame is currently missing her left eye, and the empty socket is covered with a leather patch.
Hayame is not a nice person. Or rather, she certainly doesn't come off that way. As part of her goal she has cultivated a cold, stoic exterior, and in battle or on missions is capable of ruthlessness and cruelty. She is not a talkative person, tending to keep to short, to-the-point speech, and also has a temper she struggles to keep in check at times. When she is in control of her situation she appears aloof and icy, but when she isn't, she has a bad habit of lashing out and not being able to reign in her words or actions.
Hayame is capable of kindness, if given time. Still learning to allow herself to form bonds or appear soft/weak, Hayame can be frustrating to deal with in the interim. She has a reputation as a "stallion hater", likely stemming from her distaste at the idea of being sold as a broodmare and her jealousy over the fact that male jinba have more opportunities than females, but she is slowly overcoming her general distrust and harsh judgement of men. She has also proven herself capable of some degree of naivety, caught off guard and shocked by "normal" or "casual" things that are a far cry from the highly ritualized and affection-less environment she grew up in.
More recently, Hayame is consumed with shame and self-hatred stemming from her actions in her world and her failure to commit honor suicide. She is still wrestling with the realization that she is afraid to die, that she wanted to live, and that despite all that... Now she is here, in a world without any of the people she longed to prove herself to or to save. She is currently lost, barely tethered to Pleroma and still believing she may have gone mad or that this is some kind of personal hell. It is difficult for her to trust, unable to after her upbringing, constantly on edge and likely to lash out or get into trouble until she finds something or someone to actually believe in again.
❖ Background ❖
Jinba’s Part One takes place towards the end of the Warring States period. Warlords locked in power struggles with each other over land, politics, and control of key resources has led to high demand for military forces, particularly the prized jinba.
Hayame is a jinba born in the stables of an outpost in Japan's northeastern region. She has survived to adulthood by proving her loyalty to her master as a "good horse", introduced during the rituals held before the year's auction. A "mare like her" (loyal, obedient, handsome) fetches as much as a small fief, but proving herself an excellent archer does not change the fact that buyers seem to view it as a pity that she is female.
When the newly-captured Matsukaze and the armless Kohibari escape, it is Hayame who is tasked with leading a team to pursue them. She views this as her opportunity to show off her skills and worth, trying to ensure she's bought by a military leader as a warrior instead of as a broodmare or mount. Though she does recapture them, Hayame finds herself taken as a prisoner when they are attacked by young jinba from a hidden village in the mountains. Though her brother survives and tracks them, Hayame commands him to leave her and report about the village. Judging herself not worthy of freedom due to her failure, she stays behind to sabotage things before her master arrives, or die trying.
Though Hayame attempts to kill Matsukaze by diving into a waterfall while tied to him, she is ashamed to find that not only does he save her, but she is relieved to be alive. Hayame's life begins to change. She gets a taste of what it is like to live without a master, to be around free members of her own kind, to form bonds. She’s given hope that perhaps there might be a life out there that she never could have imagined for herself.
Until her master arrives with an army in tow. She had to confess to Matsukaze that she is to blame for giving away the village's location, that her inability to fully trust in a free future had kept her mouth shut... and now everyone was in danger of enslavement, or worse, because of it. Prioritizing the escape of his pregnant sister, her husband/his friend, and the orphaned jinba, Matsukaze comes up with a plan... but in order for it to work, he needs someone to bring a flame to light the gunpowder he will wear after he's drawn the humans into a trap beneath a vulnerable cliff face.
Hayame volunteers.
❖ Abilities & Skills ❖
↣ max ~40km/h+ speed on land
↣ archery mastery (specifically the daikyu long bow)
↣ proficiency with blade and naginata polearm
↣ above-human levels of physical strength (capable of lifting a grown man off his feet with one hand, crushing bones under her hooves or in her hands, carrying hundreds of pounds on her equine back, utilizing a bow over six feet tall with a 100+ pound draw weight with no sign of strain, etc.)
↣ above-human levels of hearing and sight
As negative consequences of her anatomy, Hayame is not capable of laying down on her side for a long period of time without difficulty breathing and discomfort. It is an exceedingly difficult and lengthy recovery should she suffer leg injuries. Jinba are at least somewhat affected by the breeding seasons that rule the reproduction of their more fully equine cousins, so Hayame will go into short heats approximately once every three weeks from spring to fall. With human intellect she has the capacity to keep these under control for the most part, but she does get frustratingly horny, restless, and easily aroused.
UPDATE: Minor Aion Power (Field of Magic Resistance) Hayame's frustration with fighting magically-powered enemies and her mental rejection of magic in general has manifested in the unconscious ability to produce a Field of Magic Resistance in a small radius of approximately 3ft. around her body. Within this invisible field, Hayame receives a resistance buff against magical abilities targeting her, and it takes more effort/energy to cast spells that affect her body, her mind, or the environment within the field with magic.
UPDATE: Minor Aion Power (Field of Demonic Resistance) Hayame's frustration with fighting demonic/demon blood-powered enemies has manifested in the unconscious ability to produce a Field of Demonic Resistance in a small radius of approximately 3ft. around her body. Within this invisible field, demonic or demon-blooded individuals will find their supernatural strength and speed dampened, and Hayame receives a heightened resistance to the effects of supernatural temptations or abilities targeting her.
UPDATE: Spell from Tehri (Anti-Scrying) After fleeing from Achamoth with a Kenoma prisoner and reaching out to Tehri for advice on how to avoid the far-reaching gaze of the magical or supernatural, Hayame was taught a spell that can be used to obscure her person and objects within a five-foot radius around her for 24 hours at a time. Advanced spell casters will be able to tell there is something being hidden behind the veil, but your average magician will not be able to sense her presence. The spell will have a cooldown time of 12 hours in between casts.
(OOC: There is leeway to have these spells/fields work more well or less well depending on how we'd like a thread to go, so always feel free to discuss with me how you'd like things to play out! These ability in no way completely nullify or make her immune to things.)
❖ Resources ❖
❖ Shirt
❖ Binding Cloth
❖ Hunting Knife (from Estinien)
❖ Longbow (made by Rand)
❖ Quiver of Arrows
❖ Saddle Bag (Flint, Spare Bowstring, Bandages, Hoof Oil, Etc.)
❖ Leather Armor (made by Hiccup)
❖ Achamite Undershirt (Barnaby's)
❖ Achamite Undershirt Piece (Liem's)
❖ Sacred Text of Abadar: The Order of Numbers (Liem's)
❖ Makoto's Head
Greentruth (City)
❖ Permissions ❖
Backtagging: Yes, within reason. If there's a lack of communication about delays in tagging and the thread isn't development-heavy or plot-related I may drop it if it drags on for too long or if tags start coming with large gaps in between. If we're in contact, this isn't a problem. (Note: If threads get dropped several times with no communication, though, I will stop pursuing CR.)
Threadhopping: Sure, bring it on.
Offensive Subjects: No particular squicks, but I will tell you if something comes up.
Content Warnings: Hayame's canon is one that deals with a variety of very difficult issues, including but not limited to: slavery, forced amputations, sexual abuse, beheading, pseudo-cannibalism, and suicide. If you are uncomfortable with any of these topics, please don't hesitate to notify me on this screened Opt-Out post, or through other forms of contact!
Death/Dissipation: I'd like to avoid death this early into her time in-game but I'm not opposed to it completely depending on the circumstances.
Physical Affection: Hayame is violently opposed to touch on most all levels, and pursuing it will potentially require me to refer to your "Physical Violence" permissions section lol. I'm all for it OOCly, but just please be aware how difficult it is to get past her high defenses and viewing of affection as weakness.
Shipping/Sex: Canonically described as a "stallion-hater", Hayame has long resented men because of the struggles she's had to endure as a female in her world/culture (despite preferring them sexually). However, she associates sex with abuse and the life of a broodmare, and it would take a very specific set of miracles to get her into anything like a relationship, let alone willingness to have sex with a non-centaur. OOCly I am welcome to trying it, though!
Mental/Communion: It will take a long time for Hayame not to react violently or recoil from the idea of voices in her head screa. You're welcome to, but she may often not respond or respond with a deluge of uncontrolled reaction. Those mentally probing will find that Hayame is a very damaged young woman who has spent her life as an overseer of her own kind in a slavery system and only just recently begun to come to terms with this. Most notably she is a strong believer in honor suicide, and is currently struggling with suicidal ideations. I'm comfortable exploring these mind traps when/if they come up.
Offensive Subjects: Hayame will react very strongly and very negatively to being compared to a horse or other animal, any attempt at riding her/getting on her back, enslavement themes, amputation, and insinuations of sexual relations between centaurs and humans.